Determining what media content a user is consuming (e.g., watching/listening to) has become increasingly important. For example, an online merchant might be interested in finding out which TV episode or movie a user is watching so that targeted promotion materials can be sent to the user. For another example, a recording company might want to recommend music similar to an audio stream being played on a user's computer. Typically, the media content a user is consuming can be determined by first sampling the user media content, and then comparing it with known media content provided by external sources. Difficulties arise; however, when media content received from the external sources do not accurately reflect what is being consumed by the user. For example, when the media content received from the external sources is significantly delayed, and as a result, lags behind the media content being consumed by the user.